


Homeward Bound

by SurrealSupernaturalist



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Human, Character Death, Despair, Gen, Historical Hetalia, Inspired by Music, One Shot, Post-War, Sadness, Short One Shot, Songfic, War, You Have Been Warned, creative writing, school writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 10:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13809594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SurrealSupernaturalist/pseuds/SurrealSupernaturalist
Summary: Roma comes home after the war, but what is left?





	Homeward Bound

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for my creative writing at school. My grade came back as an Excellence (which is basically an A) so I thought I'd post it! The teacher didn't seem to realize that I turned in fanfiction for my assessment XD. The fic is inspired by the song Homeward Bound by Peter Hollens.  
> Enjoy!
> 
> Edit: This fic is not the full version. The original was a songfic, but due to copyright I was unable to keep the song in (it doesn't really work with only one or two lines, so I got rid of the whole thing). The other paragraphs, however, have not been changed. Please keep in mind that this fic was inspired by the song Homeward Bound by Peter Hollens, so I would suggest listening to it as you read this (it's such a beautiful song!).
> 
> Please enjoy!

The scene was set like a verse from Roma’s favourite song. Blades of grass sparkled diamond tears in the light of quiet dawn. Over hills afar the sun emerged from sleep, waking creatures of the field and setting light to rows of golden corn and wheat. Not a cloud in sight, the crimson sky alluded to yet another beautiful day. Silently Roma recalled the verses in his aged mind, the memory coming to him like clockwork after all the times he had sung it side by side with his grandsons. His grandsons.

 

Roma imagined his twin grandsons, with their wavy auburn hair and bright amber eyes, so full of life and happiness. Feli, the younger one, so creative and imaginative, could bring a smile to anyone’s face. He brought to life anything he drew, could paint scenes in the mind with his words.

 

So careless, so wild, so free.

Lovino, the elder one, stubborn and withdrawn, set his caged spirit free when he thought no one was watching. He leapt and pranced and stepped and spun as if the world was ending. He read the rhythm as if were words on a page, felt the beat as if the drum were his heart. The song was his soul and its lyrics his life. A perpetual scowl adjourned his face, but when he danced? There was nothing that made him happier.

 

The pair of them were gifts to the world, such raw talent and beauty. Roma wished the best for the pair of twins, a heaviness in his heart. 

 

He hoped with all his heart that they would not be subjected to the same horrors at him, the same terrors that marked his soul. He hoped that they would never see crimson rivers of blood, flies and maggots defiling the bodies of their fallen friends, comrades, allies. He hoped they would never hear the screams of dying men, or hear the dreaded sounds of enemy aircraft, or lay their eyes upon decimated landscapes that held no hope for the future. 

 

He hoped that two boys, so filled with life and hope, would never be tainted by the darkness and despair that he had seen out there.

Every night, when the moon has just risen, Feli would wake his elder twin from slumber. Every night, when the night creatures prowl, Lovino would look at his fratello with tired eyes, grumpy from being woke. Every night, when stars shine from the heavens, Feli would ask the same question.

 

“Fratello, when is Grandpa Roma coming home?” 

 

Every night, when darkness descends upon the land, Lovino would reply with the same answer.

 

“Soon.”

Hushed whispers taunted the pair from behind the stained door. A sob broke out, presumably from their mother. Fear and confusion filled their faces, unknowing of the events transpiring. The door creaked open, and a strange man emerged, clad in the same cloth their grandpa wore before he left. He nodded to the pair before abruptly leaving. Their mother called them in.

 

Feli could not believe his eyes. There in the foggy light of the new day, stood the one man whom he thought he would never see again. Whom Lovino and the rest of his family thought they would never see again. There, beyond the garden, beyond the gate. His eyes widened with glee.

 

“Fratello!” He called out for his twin, giddy with childish innocence, turning away from the window. “Fratello!”

 

Roma smiled softly to himself at the sight of a second head appearing in the window. He gave them a short wave and a cheerful grin to ease their hearts and souls. They may be deep within the clutches of grief now, but he knew, he knew that one day they would grow beyond themselves, to fill the world with happiness as they had once filled his life.

 

A hand gripped his shoulder, neither warm nor cool. A silent order. He nodded, mostly to himself. He now had closure. It was time to go. Oaken eyes, filled with bewilderment and disbelief, brimmed with tears. And he smiled.


End file.
